We are a creative homeschooling family of 3. I have homeschooled my 2 boys from the start and we do lots of unit studies and get out into our beautiful part of the world as often as we can.As the boys are getting older and we are getting busier I find I am posting less about our journey but will continue to update occasionally.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

It has been so hot here and that has inspired up to put up our new little pool.The groung looks pretty level but actually had quide a dropso we needed to even it up

It is a set and fill one- relatively quick and easy and bargain priced.Dad is a bargain hunter and got it last year on special at the end of summerwe saw it recently for $300 more than what DH paid.

We have had smaller set and fill pools before and wanted to set this one up in a more managle way. It needed a solid base that was level and we made ours with sand. We used weedmat on the bottom a flexible solid plastic garden edge and topped our pad with the groundsheet that came with the pool and folded the weedmat over the top.In theory this will minimise the sand getting into the pool, allow the water to freely drain away and allow the lawn mower and whipper snipper to be used right beside the pool. We are considering pavers or maybe some type of pebbles over the weedmat in the future.The whole family worked together to get it done.Our dog Reiley was supervisorMiss Em found a nice high spot to keep an eye on thingsOnce the pad was all finished the rest was relatively quick and easy.Laying out the pool on the padInserting the poles that make up the framesitting nicely on our new pad ready to fill filling it up

Mr10 is pretty keen to test the waters.

We have some shade sails that we will put up over the pool and will need to tidy up the ground surface as well but we were all in it yesterday afternoon and it is going to be hot again today.I can see a long hot summer with lots of cooling off in the pool in our future.

In the 1400's Jan van Eyck was the most famous painter in northern Europe.He is said to be the inventor of oil paints.He painted many portraits, religious scenes and self portraits.One of his most famous works is the Ghent Altarpiece, an amazingly detailed and intricate triptych on a wooden screen.We used recycled cereal boxes to make our triptych's

Ghiberti was a famous sculptor, painter, and a goldsmith. He was famous for the two sets of Bronze Doors.

Lorenzo entered a competition in 1401 in Florence in Italy to select an artist to decorate the doors of the beautiful city church.He was the winner with his calm elegant people in flowing robes. He worked all his life on the doors with many artists working under him.

We created our Florentine reliefs using glued on found objects, cereal box cardboard, alfoil and black ink.

The Book of Kells, a 9th century illuminated manuscript of the gospels,and it is so intricate and beautiful. Letters and pages are decorated with fantastic creatures, angels, and religious figures, outlined in brilliant colors of blue, green, red and white, yellow .

The boys and I did illuminated letters inspired by the Book of Kells before we went away to camp.I am trying to catch up on our blog,we are far too busy making art and coping with the heat to blog about it lately.

Monday, November 16, 2009

We have been camping in the rain forestwith lots of lovely home learners on beautiful Mt Tambourine!There were lots of kids to play withand games to play

new friends to share new skills withface paintingand some of the younger kids even did some body artand dress upsswimmingand lounging by the poolwe went mining for thunder eggswalks through the rain forestspotting faeriesand interesting leavesthe rain forest was lushwe went to see glow wormsand learned about themin a beautiful man made cavethe boys riding through the forestMr6 drumming around the campfirea beautiful rain forest creek with waterfalls and deep swimming holes.

This was our first time camping with a group and we had a wonderful time. We will certainly be going on more camps.

The Divine Miss Em

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I am an artist and art healer living and working in the beautiful northern rivers area of NSW Australia, my home is in the Clarence Valley and that mighty mighty river holds a special place in my heart.